World Cup 2010 Qualifying Underway in Asia

It’s all been very Africa Cup of Nations here on World Cup Blog lately, but turns out there are other continents that play the beautiful game too. One of those continents is Asia, where the World Cup 2010 qualifying process got going again today. We’re now at the Fourth Round, which means five groups of four, with the top two going to the Fifth - and final - Round.

No shock results, but mostly good news for the big boys. South Korea and new coach Huh Jong-moo claimed a comfortable 4-0 win over Turkmenistan, with not a single dislocated shoulder in sight. Japan and Thailand was played in the - brrr - snow and the half-time score of 1-1 drew boos from the Saitama crowd. But Japan came out in the second half and took care of business, going home for a nice hot drink with a 4-1 win.

Group One - the most interesting group with Australia, China and Asian Cup holders Iraq - is also underway. New Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek started with a 3-0 win over Qatar with first half goals from Josh Kennedy, Tim Cahill (pictured) and Mark Bresciano. In the same group China and Iraq shared a 1-1 draw in Dubai, Zheng Zhi scoring a 75th minute equalizer for China.

The only slip-up came from Iran, who could only a manage a 0-0 draw against the part-timers of Syria. Iran still have no coach as Javier Clementre is mulling over the fine print of the contract Iran has put on his desk and have now failed to score in five games.